Major-General Sir Allan Shafto Adair Bt KCVO CB DSO MC

Allan Henry Shafto Adair was born in London on 3 Nov 1897, the son of Sir Robert Shafto Adair, 5th Baronet, and Mary Bosanquet. He was educated at Harrow and joined the army in May 1916. He entered the 3rd Battalion Grenadier Guards when they were in France in December of that year. He won the MC in 1918 for leading his company to their destination in thick fog and under heavy fire and achieving his objective. He was awarded a second MC on 4 Nov 1918 for completing a dangerous manoeuvre with his company and being wounded in the leg. Between the wars he was second in command of the 3rd Battalion and appointed CO on 8 May 1940. He was with them in the BEF and at Dunkirk.
He next commanded the 6th Guards Armoured Brigade, and from 1942 to the end of the war he was GOC Guards Armoured Division, taking them to Normandy in June 1944. They liberated Brussels after a very fast advance from Douai and then took part in Operation Market Garden in Sep 1944. He was promoted to Major-General on 25 July 1946 and retired from active service on 11 Mar 1947. In retirement he was an officer in the Yeoman of the Guard and was a leading Freemason. He was married to Enid Violet Ida Ward on 28 Apr 1919 and they had two sons and 3 daughters. One son died in infancy, the other at the age of 23 as a captain in WW2. He inherited the title of 6th Baronet on 9 Oct 1949, and the family home, Flixton Hall in Suffolk which had to be sold in 1950 because it was 'an uncomfortable mausoleum'. They then lived at Raveningham in Norfolk. His title became extinct when he died on 4 Aug 1988 at the age of 90.

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